Price action was choppy and the price range remained relatively tight this week. None of the TSP funds moved more than 0.4% in either direction for the week. A mix of differing earnings reports kept both the bulls and bears out of control of the price action. Most earnings have been lackluster but dip buyers were able to keep prices afloat.
Bank earnings were in the spotlight this week giving investors insight to how the bank collapses in March affected the entire financial sector. The overall impression is the banking sector remained relatively stable through March, but the house of cards is still vulnerable to a drop in deposits. Lower deposits will have a ripple effect that will tighten up the entire credit market and further hit the brakes on the economy.
Next week the focus will be on earnings from three of the four largest companies in the U.S.: Microsoft, Alphabet (Google), and Amazon. The market weight of these three companies have on the S&P 500 (C-fund) makes them potential market movers and their performance can send the indices into a new direction.
The I-fund outperformed the TSP funds this week with a gain of 0.38%. The F-fund lagged the TSP funds with a 0.23% loss.
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Here are the weekly, monthly, and annual TSP fund returns for the week ending April 21:
SPY (C-fund) touched the prices established as highs back in early February, but the ETF could not make new ground. Price action was choppy and relatively tight through the week. By the end the week the ETF rested on the rising support of nearly two month trading channel. This ended the C-fund's week with a slight loss of 0.09%; the only loss among the TSP stock funds.
The Dow Completion Index (S-fund) is not struggling to surpass previous highs, but instead struggling to find any direction outside of its 20 and 50-day EMAs. In the previous week we thought the price action would move in either direction with trend lines converging in different directions. It seemed the support line (dotted red) was holding as support over the falling resistance (solid red), but a flat day on Friday put the price below the rising support (dotted red). The real confinement of the price came from the major moving averages, the 20-day EMA and the 50-day EMA. The S-fund did manage to end the week with a positive return of 0.27%, but that was off its highs earlier in the week.
EFA (I-fund) slowed its pace of gains this week as it traded below the steep rising support line of the last month. But this has still been the fund to be in for those invested in stocks. It is not facing major resistance like the other charts. The I-fund gained 0.38% for the week, but close slightly below the previous Thursday price which still holds as the high for 2023. Will that price be a problem going forward?
BND (F-fund) gapped down to start the week then the price fell lower as the week went on until finding support and establishing a low for the week at the 50-day EMA. Most of the early losses were erased by Thursday's close but a down day Friday put the F-fund at a 0.23% loss for the week; this was the worst performance among the TSP funds for the week.
Good luck and thanks for reading. We will be back here next week with another TSP Wrap Up. You can read our daily market commentary at the Market Comments page. If you need more help deciding what to do with your account, perhaps one of our Premium Services can help.
Thomas A Crowley
wwww.tsptalk.com
Last Look Report
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The legal stuff: This information is for educational purposes only! This is not advice or a recommendation. We do not give investment advice. Do not act on this data. Do not buy, sell or trade the funds mentioned herein based on this information. We may trade these funds differently than discussed above. We use additional methods and strategies to determine fund positions.
